Big Picture: Buccaneers Forced to Forge New Identity Without Mike Evans, Lavonte David

TAMPA BAY — For well over a decade, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and their fans have always known that any season, good or bad, started with a foundation of two iconic players in receiver Mike Evans and linebacker Lavonte David. The pain of Evans leaving in free agency to sign with the San Francisco 49ers had not yet subsided for those fans when Tuesday brought news — not surprising, but certainly not easy — that David was retiring after playing his entire 14-year career in Tampa. Between them, Evans and David played 411 games over 26 seasons for the Bucs, and were arguably the team’s most beloved players before and after the Tom Brady years. David enjoyed one winning season in his first seven years in Tampa, and Evans the same in his first five. They both stuck around through the lean times so that when the franchise won a Super Bowl championship in the 2020 season and division titles the next four years, an entire fan base had been through the highest of highs and lowest of lows with David and Evans. Both are no-brainer locks for the Bucs’ Ring of Honor, and both have compelling cases for the Pro Football Hall of Fame, with Evans already having 108 receiving touchdowns and 11 straight 1,000-yard seasons; David finished his career with 1,716 tackles, tying him with Derrick Brooks for a franchise record that may never be broken. His 177 tackles for loss are the fourth-most in NFL history. And now both players are gone, in a span of two difficult weeks. Replacing them as playmakers is a daunting challenge, but what the Bucs lose in leadership and character and veteran guidance is even more immeasurable. Evans was the very first draft pick that Bucs general manager Jason Licht made in 2014, and David is literally the model the Bucs use when evaluating draft prospects — as players and as people. A wall-sized mural in the team’s draft room has his silhouette with the words “I AM THAT MAN,” listing five adjectives the team seeks in any new player: accountable, competitive, confident, passionate and resilient. “It’s super-rare,” Licht said of finding players that meet those standards the way David has during the linebacker’s retirement press conference. “I can only hope that we draft a player like him again. It’s hard. It’s almost impossible.” So how do the Bucs move forward without two such foundational pieces? The franchise was already in a harsh downturn, having gone from a 6-2 start to losing seven of eight games and missing the playoffs for the first time since 2019. Free agency has been more about significant losses — Evans to the 49ers, corner Jamel Dean to the Pittsburgh Steelers and defensive lineman Logan Hall to the Houston Texans. The Bucs’ sustained success had set them up for a run-it-back offseason where the goal was to keep a winning core as intact as possible. This spring has been different. Of their 21 unrestricted free agents, they have re-signed only four, and tight end Cade Otton was the only big name in that group. They’ve found value in seven outside additions, including linebacker Alex Anzalone, who steps into David’s role, but there is now uncertainty where the team had enjoyed steady optimism for so many summers of late. With Evans, David and Dean gone, there are now only five players left from Tampa Bay’s Super Bowl team just five years ago — receiver Chris Godwin, tackle Tristan Wirfs, defensive tackle Vita Vea, safety Antoine Winfield and outside linebacker Anthony Nelson. They are the last remnants of that championship team, tasked with keeping expectations high even as the outside perception fades. Wirfs, Winfield and Nelson were in attendance Tuesday as David bid farewell to the Bucs, and the linebacker pointed to other young players as emerging leaders. David was a 12-time captain in Tampa, from his third season on, so he knows that leadership isn’t only from the most experienced players in the room. He mentioned safety Tykee Smith, whom he took under his wing, and defensive tackle Calijah Kancey, who went to the same Miami high school he attended. If Evans’ departure was a shock for Bucs fans who had hoped he would play his entire career in one place, David’s news was a chance to appreciate how rare that is. Tampa Bay’s five Hall of Famers fit neatly into both categories. Lee Roy Selmon, Derrick Brooks and Ronde Barber were monogamous players, wire-to-wire Bucs and beloved for that. John Lynch and Warren Sapp finished their careers in Denver and Oakland, respectively, but are still loved by Tampa fans, as Evans will be. The closest thing to what Bucs fans have endured in the last two weeks might have been the spring of 2004, when they lost Lynch and Sapp, again two core leaders from a Super Bowl team. They did not win another playoff game until 2020. So this year’s Bucs are tasked with avoiding an expected letdown, something they did well after Brady’s retirement three years ago. The Bucs are still in a bad division, and the oddsmakers still have them as the team to beat in the NFC South, even with an underwhelming projected win total of 8.5 wins in 2026. The Carolina Panthers, Atlanta Falcons and New Orleans Saints are all within two games of that. Tampa Bay will forge a new identity without Evans and David, trying to fill voids on both sides of the ball to maintain the high standard both set in the second half of their Tampa Bay tenures. “It goes to show you what the future holds for this organization,” David said Tuesday. “Winning football, underdog mentality, going out there and playing every game like it’s your last. I know this organization will be in a great place.”